Dennis Scimeca argues that “unquestioned” homophobia runs rampant in Battlefield 3, but the crux of his argument teeters on a debatable interpretation.

The homophobia which Scimeca calls into question is based upon his interpretation of two lines of dialogue in which AIs call out for help using phrases such as “I’m getting f****d up the a** over here” and “I’m getting my s**t pushed in here.” The author then goes on to explain how he finds phrases such as these to be an implicit promotion of homophobic rhetoric. It eventually leads him to reason that such a negative portrayal of homosexuality could have disastrous circumstances in the real world.

Yet his entire homophobia argument rests on his interpretation of these two phrases. Scimeca writes, “It's assumed that his [the in-game soldier’s] male squadmate will interpret a reference to anal sex as a negative statement because the squadmate would find anal sex repulsive by default.” Any deviation from this broad assumption leaves his argument void of rationale.

If a video game journalist calls out a company for putting homophobic language in their game, the argument should be bulletproof. The flimsiness of Scimeca’s argument comes from a lack of foresight. One could argue that the phrases he singles out don’t imply homophobia but instead imply rape. By ignoring all differing interpretations of the phrases, Scimeca opens himself up to criticism.

However I can’t help but agree with the sentiment behind Scimeca’s article. He says, “It's easy to gloss over close analysis of these games and wave them away as stupid shooters.” Because video games are still developing they retain a flexibility unseen in other forms of media. Gamers should scrutinize them down to the last few lines of dialogue to show game producers what we want, what we like, and what sucks. But over interpretation of minute details should never lead to charges of homophobia.